State briefs mental health providers on SAFE law

Curtis Skinner’s story from our colleagues at the New York World on the federal Veterans Administration’s decision not to comply with the mental health reporting requirements of the new NY SAFE gun control act was especially timely because this section of the law goes into effect on Saturday.

In short, the law requires “mental health professionals” — physicians, psychologists, registered nurses, licensed clinical social workers — “to report to the county (Director of Community Services) or designee when, in their reasonable professional judgment, one of the persons for whom they are currently providing mental health treatment services is “likely to engage in conduct that would result in serious harm to self or others.”

There are only two exceptions: if the professional believes that reporting would present a danger to him or her, or if a report would increase the danger to potential victims.

Q: The VA has said that it won’t be able to abide by the SAFE Act in terms of reporting the mental health difficulties of veterans. Is that something your administration has been apprised of, and what’s your reaction?

Cuomo: You know, I really don’t know the specifics, but first of all what the law says is it leaves it totally up to the mental health provider if they want to come forward or not — totally up to them. It’s volitional on their part. And then depending on the institution or the organization, they may have preexisting legal parameters. Some organizations just say, beginning of the day, all communications are confidential, period, all information is confidential, period. So it’s going to have to be viewed in the light of their legal structure in the first place. But it’s up to them.

A Cuomo spokesman later said that the governor was referring to the provider’s assessment of the patient’s level of potential threat when he used the word “volitional” — in other words, it’s up to the provider to determine if the patient is a threat. But that’s not the issue raised by the VA’s decision: Contrary to the governor’s statement, the law explicitly does not leave it totally up to the mental health provider whether to come forward or not: Outside the exceptions mentioned above, they are required to come forward.

On Tuesday afternoon, the state Office of Mental Health posted an online tutorial for providers on how to abide by the new law presented by Mike Green, head of the state Division of Criminal Justice Services, and John Allen of the Office of Mental Health. It goes into great detail on the new law as well as the reporting requirements, including the online protocol for reporting a potential dangerous individual to the state.